Bass of the Week: BL Design Marozi #014

One of the first basses we featured in the Bass of the Week series was the redwood themed BL Design Barbary. After revisiting the BL Design website I found this unbelievable 5-string Marozi that centers around a stunning spalted myrtle burl top.

The Marozi is one of luthier Beau Leopard’s double cutaway designs. This particular instrument was built with a mahogany body accented with maple and wenge. Its 5-piece neck is built of center strip of curly maple, two wenge strips, and two more layers of maple. The fretboard continues the pattern and is wenge with curly maple binding. It’s inlaid with mother of pearl cat eye fretboard markers and mother of pearl side dots.

BL Design loaded the bass with a pair of Nordstrand Fat Stack pickups as well as piezos in the ETS Tuning Fork bridge. Electronics include a Bartolini magnetic/piezo pickup buffer and an Aguilar OBP-3 preamp. Other features on the bass include continuous pickup covers, a gold mother of pearl “B-logo” and bass clef inlay, and matching wooden knobs.